Ryanair clamps down on internet "ticket touts"

By Andras Gergely

DUBLIN (Reuters) - Irish budget airline Ryanair (RYA.I) on Thursday defended a policy of cancelling bookings made via third-party websites, saying it hopes to eliminate a practice that affects about a thousand bookings a day.

Europe's biggest low-cost carrier faced criticism across the continent this week for not honouring bookings made via sites such as Atrapalo and eDreams in Spain and Vtours in Germany.

The Dublin-based airline, which last month won a court order preventing Vtours from selling Ryanair tickets, says the sites are overloading its own booking system, violating its copyright and breaching its booking terms and conditions.

Ryanair (RYA.L) also accuses the sites, which it has dubbed "screenscrapers", of misleading consumers by levying additional charges that could be avoided by booking directly with Ryanair.

"We hope that the number of bookings made through these scam artists, these ticket touts has fallen as a result of publicity," Ryanair Chief Executive Michael O'Leary told a news conference in Dublin.

Ryanair estimates that about 1,000 such bookings are being made each day and that it is currently managing to cancel about 400. The airline typically takes about 200,000 bookings a day.

Italian Transport Minister Altero Matteoli this week asked Italy's civil aviation authority to protect passengers, describing Ryanair's move as deplorable and incomprehensible while Spain has asked the airline to explain its policy.

Spanish online travel firm eDreams has threatened Ryanair with legal action over the cancellations, saying the airline does not want passengers to be able to compare prices.

Ryanair says it has no problem with travel and price comparison websites so long as they redirect customers to its own online booking system.

Ireland's National Consumer Agency has told Ryanair it should have tackled the relevant companies in court rather than targeting customers by cancelling their bookings.

NO PLANS TO BUY STANSTED

Ryanair also said on Thursday it remained unhedged for its fourth-quarter fuel needs, though it noted oil was now cheaper than the $130 price on which it based its full-year earnings outlook given in July.

"We have not changed the guidance, but you don't need to be a genius to work out oil is not at $130 a barrel," O'Leary said in an interview on Thursday, when oil traded near $116 a barrel.

Ryanair said last month it could make its first loss since 1989 but that prediction assumed oil prices would stay at around $130 a barrel and that average ticket prices fell 5 percent.

The airline has admitted it got its hedging wrong, failing to insure against record high oil prices early enough. O'Leary said there was no guarantee he would get it right in future.